- The Leon County School District is seeing an improvement in safety on campuses.
- After the COVID-19 pandemic schools in our neighborhoods saw a steep climb in guns being brought on campus.
- The Tallahassee Urban League just started an initiative with the Tallahassee Police Department to remind people not to keep guns in their cars.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The Leon County School District is seeing an improvement in safety on campuses, but there's still work to be done.
After the COVID-19 pandemic schools in our neighborhoods saw a steep climb in guns being brought on campus. Now our schools are seeing a major turning point.
During a Tuesday night school board meeting, Leon County Schools Chief of Safety and Security Jimmy Williams said a new safety plan called Leon County School Safe Schools Initiative showed strong results.
"This school year we've only taken one firearm off of our campus," Williams said. "This time last year we had about seven, a total of 10 last year and about eight in the year previous to that."
The safe school plan has two key components. One of them includes a dog named Tango.
"Leon County Schools is one of two that I'm aware of, districts that own currently a firearms detection dog and have certified handlers," Williams said. "Tango, as you can see is a very happy two-year-old golden retriever.
Tango has been in schools all over Leon County including in our downtown neighborhood schools. Gun detection devices are also in the plan.
They're portable and only require minimal setup and take-down time. "We've done it before school," Williams said. "We've done it during PE classes."
As schools double down on trying to reduce guns on campus so are community groups.
"Do not leave your guns in your unlocked cars, because these guns are being stolen out of cars at night and they are being used to shoot and kill us," Curtis Taylor, Tallahassee Urban League President and CEO said.
The Tallahassee Urban League just started an initiative with the Tallahassee Police Department to remind people not to keep guns in their cars. Those guns sometimes end up in the hands of students.
"We don't think people are leaving their guns and in their cars," Taylor said. "They just forget it's there, and they don't lock the cars."
Everyone's goals are to keep students focused, safe, and in the classroom."The goal is to not incarcerate a young person with a firearm on campus at all," Williams said. "The goal is to not have guns on our campus at all."
According to Everytown Research and Policy, an average of at least one gun is stolen from a car every 15 minutes.
We've reached out to the Tallahassee Police Department to see how many guns were stolen from unlocked cars in our neighborhoods in the past year. We haven't heard back as of yet, but when we do well let you know the numbers.
